Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-07
CHAPTER VI.


HE SIOhh DREAMS.
"Do you know you are a very odd person,
Miss jess" John said presently with little
laugh. Il don't think you can have happy
mind
She looked up "a happy mindF she said.
"Who can have Il happy nnids Nobody who
can feel Supposing,n she went on after n
surprising one puts ones self and
ones own little interests and joys and sorrows
quite away, how is it possible 10 be happy
when one feels the breath Of human misery
beating on ones face and sees the great tide
of sorrow and suffering creeping up to ones
feetf One may be on rock ones self and
out of the path of it till the spring floods or
the hurricane wave comes to sweep one away,
or one may he afloat upon it: whichever it is,
it is quite impossible, if one has any heart, To
be Indifferent to it.
"rhen only the Indifferent are happy!"
"Yes, the Indifferent and the selfish; but,
after all, it is the same thing; Indifference is
the perfection of seliishncss."
al am afraid that there must he lots of
selfishness in the world, for there is certainly
plenty OF happiness, all evil things notwith-
standing. should have said that happiness
comes from goodness and from a sound diges-
ton"
jess shook her head as she answered a may
be wrong, but don't see how anybody who
feels can be quite happy in a world Of sick
hess, suffering, slaughter and death. / saw
kailir woman die yesterday and her children
crying over her. She was poor creature
and had rough lot, but she loved her life
and her children loved her. Who can he
happy and thank God for bis creation when
be has just such thing: But there,
Capt Mel, my ideas are very crude and |
dare say very wrong, and every body has
thought them before; at any rate, | am not
going to inflct them on You What is the
use Of ltf' she went on, with laugh; what
Is the use of anythings The same old thoughts
passing through the same human minds from
year to year and century to century, just
the same clouds float across the same blue
sky The clouds are born in the sky and the
thoughts are born in the brain, and they both
end in tears and rearse in binding, bewiller-
ing mist, and this is the beginning and end of
thoughts and clouds They arise out of the
blue; they overshadow and break into storms
and tears, and then they are drawn up with
the blue again and the whole thing begins
afreshn
$50 you don't think that one can be happy
in the world." he asked.
If did not say that never said that. l
do not think that happiness is possible 1t is
possible if one can love somebody so hard
that one can quite forget ones self and every
thing else except that person, aud it is pos
sible if one can sacrifice ones self for others.
There is no true happiness outside Of love and
self sacrifice, or rather outside of love, for it
includes the other That is gold, all the rest
is gilt"
"How do you know that" he asked quickly
@You have never been in love"
NO she answered IL have never been in
love like that, but all the happiness | have
had in my life has come to me from loving.
believe that love Is the secret of the world :;
it is like the philosophers stone they used to
look for, and almost as hard to find, but when
one finds it it turns everything to gold Per
haps," she went on with a little laugh, ''when
the angels left the earth they left us love be
hind, that by it and through it we NAV climb
up to them again 1t is the one thing that
lifts us above the brutes. Without love man
is brute, and nothing but brute. with love
he draws near to God When everything else
falls away the love will endure becn,ls,. it can
not die while there is any life, if il is true love,
for it is immortal. Only it must be true
you see, it must he true"
He had got through her reserve now; the
ice of her manner broke up beneath the
warmth of her words and her uSIIaiv i'm
passive face had caught the life and hight
from the eyes above and acquired certain
beauty of its own He looked at it, and
realized something of the untaught and i'll
regulated intensity and depth of the nature of
this curious girl. He caught her eyes and
they moved him strangely, though he was not
an emotional man. and was too Old to expert
ence spasmodic thrills at the chance gances
of pretty woman. He went toward her,
looking at her curiously.
at would be worth living to be loved like
that, ;" he said, more to himself than to her
She did not answer, hut she let her eyes rest
on his. Indeed, she did more, for she put all
her soul into them and gazed and gazed till
John Mel felt as though he were being mes
merized, And as she did so there rose up in
her breast knowledge that if she willed it
she could gain this mans heart and hold it.
agirinst all the world for her mature was
stronger than his nature and her mind, I'M
trained as it was, encompassed his mind and
could pass over it and beat it down as the
wind beats down tossing sea. All this she
learned in moment in the twnkling of an
eye; she did not know how she knew it, but
she did know it as surely she knew that the
blue sky stretched overhead, and what is
more, he-for the moment, at any rate-knew
it too. 1t came on her a shock and reve-
lation, like the tidings of a great joy or grief,
and for moment left her heart empty of all
things else.
She dropped her eyes suddenly.
a think, she said, quietly, ''that we have
been talking a great deal of nonsense, and
that want TO finish my sketch"
He got up and left her, for he had to get
home saying as he did so that he thought
there was storm coming up, the air was so
quiet, and the wind had fallen as it does be-
fore an African tempest, and presently, on
looking round, she saw him slowly climbing
the precipitous ascent to the table land above
1t was u glorious afternoon, such as one
sometimes gets in the African spring, although
it was so intensely still. Everywhere were
the proofs and evidences of life. The winter
was over, and now, from the sadness and
sterility of its withered age, sprans young and
atN'il
| with dew and fragrant with the breath OF
| flowers jess lay back and looked up into the
| Infinite depths above. How blue they we're,
and how measureess She could not see the
angry clouds that lay like visible omens on
the horizon. See there, miles above her. was
one tiny circling speck- 1t was vulture,
watching her from its airy heights and de-
scending a little to see if she were dead or only
sleeping.
1nvoluntarily she shuddered. The bird of
death reminded her of Death himself, also
hanging high up there in the blue and wait.
ing his opportunity to fall upon the sleeper.
Then her eyes fell upon bough of the glori
Gus Towering bush under which she lay. Ii
was not more than four feet above her mead
but she was so still and motionless that q
jeweled honeysucker came aud hoyered oyer